1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a network system in which a client with a web browser and a web server are connected over a network, and to the client and a method of controlling the client.
2. Related Art
Japanese Unexamined Patent Appl. Pub. JP-A-2004-272468 teaches a network system that enables printing labels without downloading an application to a client by installing an application for printing labels on a web server, and installing a web browser and a web printing tool on the client. This type of network system requires the web server to know the status of the client. More particularly with the network system taught in JP-A-2004-272468, the web server must know the printing status of the label printer connected to the client. This can be done by installing a special program on the client and regularly reporting the client status to the web server (first method). Another known method is for the web server to access the client to get the client status, and acquire the response to this access attempt as the client status.
However, this first method, which requires installing a special program on the client, also requires using a special server as the web server. The second method, which requires the web server to access the client to acquire the client status, can only be used in specific environments because the web server cannot access the client through a firewall, and therefore cannot be used in environments that use a typical home router, for example.
Both of these methods thus require a special server or environment in order for the web server to manage the client status, and building the network system is therefore expensive.
Managing client status with a web server also necessarily increases client-server communication. Because the processing load of the web server therefore increases, a high performance web server is needed, a web server specifically for managing client status information is required, and the overall cost of the service increases.